Saturday, October 8, 2011

This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only. Please find the section marked "Win it!" for the mandatory main entry and optional bonus entries.

Skinies is offering our readers a giveaway of a Skinies Slimming Open Cup Breastfeeding Cami, a value of $33.

This unique open-cup design is a discreet underlayer for comfortable nursing in public at any bra size.

The nursing cami dilemma — solved

When I first started breastfeeding, I really wanted a nursing cami — but my large cup size made it impractical. For one thing, it was pretty impossible to find one that fit. For another, I needed a lot more support than a simple shelf bra could give. I needed, in short, my own nursing bra on.

When I discovered Skinies, through a giveaway win initially, I was so excited. It's like a supportive cami but with two holes cut out over your breasts: simple but ingenious.

It gives the main advantages of a nursing cami — simple, streamlined coverage — but allows you to wear your own bra. This means it works for pretty much any cup size!

How it works

You can put the Skinies on over your bra (left), or under your bra (right).

Having your bra on the bottom is what you'd intuitively think to do first, because that's the usual way you'd get dressed! In that case, you just slip your hand into the easily accessed hole in the front of the Skinies to reach the clasp of your nursing bra, pull the cup down, and latch on.

However, Skinies mentions in the packaging and on the website that it's actually just as valid to wear your bra over the Skinies cami. I was skeptical at first — wouldn't that be like wearing my underwear on the outside? Would it feel weird to have something on under my bra?

But, you know what, I actually prefer it that way! To the right I've shown what it looks like under my shirt when I wear the black Skinies with a nude bra on top. Obviously, as in the site's photos above, it's much more streamlined if you wear the same color bra as Skinies, but I purposely wore contrasting colors so you can see what's what. (The bumpy line inside my bra is just the edge of my nursing pad, by the by.)

The reason I like wearing my bra on top of the Skinies is that it's much easier to reach my nursing bra clasp. I don't have to reach up through the hole but just inside my shirt, as normal. Once I pull down the cup front, the Skinies hole is around my breast to provide an extra cleavage shield.

Skinies recommends wearing your bra on top especially if you're wearing contrasting colors or have a lighter colored shirt on top, so that the holes in the Skinies don't peek through. I can see how that would look odd! With my bra on top, I've never noticed any strange lines through my clothes.

It's also the way they recommend crafting your own dual-layer nursing cami:

Here's Jodie, the inventor of Skinies and a breastfeeding mama of six (6) little ones, demonstrating how it all works in a short video (less than a minute long):

My take

I really love the Skinies, and here's why:

I really appreciate that I can wear my own supportive nursing bra. This way, the Skinies accommodates a wide range of cup sizes. (I wear a 36H, in case anyone is wondering.)

It's easy to use. As I said, I love putting my bra over the top — then I have just one clasp to undo that's easy to reach, and the Skinies is the foundation under it all keeping me covered.

Speaking of which, it helps me feel comfortable about nursing in public. I don't preach discretion to anyone — I just personally prefer to have the top of my breasts covered as I breastfeed in public. The picture there is of me breastfeeding at a fair around 80,000 of my closest friends, but you can see I didn't have to worry that anyone could see anything interesting. As the site mentions, you could also wear this for pumping at work so you feel like you're covering up what you want to.

It's the perfect layering piece for outfits that are otherwise hard to nurse in discreetly — like dresses or while using a baby carrier like a mei tai. As long as the neckline of your shirt or dress pulls down from the top, the Skinies will help fill in the gaps for you. Often, I'll pull my top shirt up from the bottom, so the Skinies is a nice change when it's easier to pull my shirt (or dress) down from the top.

The Skinies gives a nice, slimming silhouette. It's got a little Spandex to it so that it hugs your length, but it doesn't bind like shapewear. It's just a nice extra touch of mental comfort if you have a postpartum tummy. (Raises hand.)

On that note, the Skinies keeps my tummy, sides, and back covered. If I choose to pull my shirt up, the Skinies is a protective layer over parts I'd rather not show. You can see how my torso is covered in the picture to the right.

The fabric is soft and comfortable, and I felt fine having the holes around my breasts under my bra — no pressure or marks.

Are there any improvements to make?

I'm happy that the sizes run from Small through 2X, and I think that will fit a variety of shapes. However, obviously there will be some people this will not accommodate. I did find that with an XL on me that I spent more time tugging down the cami than I'd wanted to — perhaps I should have ordered up a size or tucked the cami into my pants. (I had already ordered a size larger than my pre-pregnancy size due to the fact that I haven't lost my pregnancy weight.) I think garments with Spandex tend to ride up more than all-natural fabrics, so it might be just a factor of the materials.

One problem I had was that my breasts are just so dang large that I had to tug the Skinies fabric forward a bit when I was nursing to cover up more of the breast skin I wanted to. Otherwise, the hole tended to snug back against the base of my breast, exposing more skin than I felt comfortable with. Once I did tug it into place, though, it stayed pretty well for the feeding, so it wasn't really a problem. I think people with more small to average size breasts won't have this issue, but at least it's easily fixed.

I preferred not to wear the Skinies on top of my bra, because I found it fiddly to reach inside the hole to find my bra clasp. I'm sure I could get used to it if I needed to, but fortunately I can just wear my bra on top, so we're good!

I chose the new style without the decorative petals around the opening. I have a Skinies from before with the petals and like the decoration all right, but I found that sometimes the neckline of my shirts slipped low enough to show them. I think having no petals plus a matching color bra helps make the look underneath much more discreet in case of shirt slippage. (I can't be the only one whose necklines stretch out from breastfeeding, right?) However, I did still have a few occasions where I had to realign my bra and Skinies openings to make sure there was no sliver of skin between the two.

The price of $33 might be steep for some, though I think it's a worthy price, particularly since it supports a mom-run, breastfeeding-friendly business. It helps if you think of all the money you're saving by not needing to buy any other nursing-specific clothing beyond your nursing bras!

Nursing cami success!

Here we go, final recommendations: If you're going to buy just one nursing cami, I would go with a Skinies!

It will fit you no matter what your wildly fluctuating cup size ends up doing. You can get the support you need with your own well-fitting bra instead of having to rely on some stretchy fabric to hold you and your nursing pads in place. And it will keep you covered, comfortably, from cleavage to tummy, letting you breastfeed in style and in confidence.

You can't beat that!

BUY IT!

You can purchase Skinies Nursing Camis online at Skinies.com. The Skinies cami costs $33. If you buy 3, you get 1 free. It would also make a great gift for a new mama!

Skinies comes in three colors: black, nude, and white.

Skinies ships internationally. Shipping is FREE in the US and starts at $5 internationally.

Skinies is also offering our readers a special discount!

Enter the code "npnetwork"
to take 20% off your first Skinies!

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win a Skinies Nursing Cami, enter by leaving a comment and using our new Rafflecopter system below.

Contest is open to United States and Canadian addresses.

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This is a joint giveaway with Hobo Mama and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only, and we'll be recording IP addresses to ensure that there are no duplicate entries. That said, please do visit and enjoy both sites!

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Disclosure: I received a sample product for review.
I try to seek out only products I think you would find
relevant and useful to your life as a natural parent.
If I don't like a product, I won't be recommending it to you.
See my full disclosure policy here.

From the website, I learned that the camis have some spandex--love that idea! And I would really like to try this with my bra over the cami. I need the support of a bra, but I hate having to undo two clasps (cami & bra) every time I nurse. Very clever!

I like that you can wear your own bra with it, and I want one because my biggest problem with bfing in public personally was that my stomach always showed if I wasn't covered. I think the cami would be a great solution to this problem.

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Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and Karsten (born October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.